Solid oxide fuel cells with doped lanthanum gallate electrolyte and LaSrCoO3 cathode, and Ni-samaria-doped ceria cermet anode

The electrode performance of a single solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was evaluated using a 500 mu m thick La(0.9)Sr(0.1)Ga(0.8)Mg(0.2)O(0.3) (LSGM) as the electrolyte membrane. A doped lanthanum cobaltite, La(0.6)Sr(0.4)CoO(3-delta) was selected as the cathode material, and a samaria-doped ceria-NiO composite powder was used as the anode material. The spray-pyrolysis method was applied for synthesis of the starting powders of the cathode and anode. In this study, different microstructures of the cathode were obtained by varying the sintering temperature from 950 to 1200 degrees C. High power density (the maximum power density of the cell was about 425 mW/cm(2), which is 95% of the theoretical value) of the solid oxide fuel cell at 800 degrees C was achieved. The cell performance showed that, with a proper choice of electrode materials with optimized microstructure and LSGM as the electrolyte, a SOFC operating at temperatures T(op) less than or equal to 800 is a realistic goal. (C) 1999 The Electrochemical Society. S0013-4651(98)10-022-8. All rights reserved.